Tuesday, 26 June 2012

The reverse applique project from Jenny Lester's workshop for Gwent Quilters turned out to be a terrific match for my Dad's dining room so he now has a unique mat for the dining suite that he loves

and it matches his chairs a treat!

The lone star has been fun to do and rewarding so far. Choosing the colours was a challenge and I'm really pleased how they'e come together. I did the first Y seam perfectly - in the wrong place. This shows where I went wrong and is an impression of is how it will look eventually.

Next are decisions re the border, probably multi coloured strips. Inevitably there's not a lot of one colour, the green, left....Originally I did want to do flying geese as seen on an exhibit at Malvern, but don't want to detract from the impact of the stunning centre.

I was so inspired by the exhibiton of City and Guilds Patchwork students at Brynglas House in Newport, that I'm considering doing the course for the next 3/4 years, Fiona has been encouraging and reassuring me. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Friday, 8 June 2012

Faced with the challenge of producing quick, easy, inexpensive items to be sold for next to nothing at the Jubilee fete, I used the Malvern Show workshop by Sadie Yeomans as inspiration to make soft owls.As well as being high on the aaah factor, being stuffed with sheepskin off-cuts they could do pincushion duty.

Friends all liked them, the punters did too and they all sold.
So camera shy Rose and I made 2 more today, having had our nails done a suitably toning shade! Thank you very much Sadie

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

This lovely workshop at Gwent Quilters was just right, it taught me a great new technique and wasn't too tricky or time consuming to finish.

Two layers bonded and cut with a turquoise under layer, partly folded back

The full pattern folded in position before stitching down the layers

Stitched and pinned into approximate shape - it will be round

The colours are perfect in my Dad's dining room so it will end up as a round mat in the centre of his dining table. The stitching isn't perfect so don't enlarge it too far. After all the first time is only a practice!

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Despite the long silence I have been quilting as well as Toastmastering.

My Dad's second quilt is finished and he LOVES it I'm pleased too

As the design looks rather like floor tiles, perhaps it's appropriate I've taken the photo in my tiled hall. The best spot it seems because from up a few stairs I can get a good overview.

At last the size is right, at 53" square it seems to do the job, but he still prefers his rug and likes to look at it instead! As they say, there's no accounting for folk.

For the first time I 'mastered' the lettering function on my new Bernina
for the label. It took forever but was eventually effective if not
totally successful. Lots to learn when I finally manage to get on a course to learn the finer points of the Bernina Aurora 430

The first quilt was so much more work but "too small and stiff". I'm still very
pleased with it, have brought it home to think about making it larger and currently want to
leave as it is.